Securing the future after a life-changing event

case studies
Hobbs Financial Oct 24, 2018

The situation

By 2015, a self-employed client’s recently diagnosed disability was preventing her from continuing to follow her profession and revenues were in decline. It was decided to lodge a claim under a PHI policy, which we had advised upon and set up ten years earlier, in 2005. The policy was constructed to provide a benefit of €1,200 per week up to 2032 after three months of illness or disability. After tax relief, the net monthly cost of the cover was about €75.

Our results

The insurer’s Claims Department delayed paying the claim for over a year, arguing – against medical professional opinion – that the disability wasn’t sufficient to warrant a claim. As a firm, we have placed substantial amounts of PHI cover over three decades and had a working relationship with the insurer in question. We chose to intervene, going straight past the medical dispute and lobbying the CEO directly.

The response was immediate. Our client’s claim was reopened, reviewed, paid out and back-dated to 2014. This should mean a payout of around €1 million in income to age 65, allowing our client to undertake a small level of work and secure her position.